Kirchner Tests the Waters

Sotheby’s announced another lot designed to temp buyers at their February Impressionist sale. This Berlin street scene by Ludwig Kirchner is the last one in private hands.

With two recent major museum shows, the ground has already been prepared well to support Kirchner’s prices.

Almost as important, the Sotheby’s lot comes with a strong provenance. It was last sold during the agenda-setting Tabchnik sale more than a decade ago. It was there that Fauvism and Expressionism first began to climb in value.

The painting that Sotheby’s is selling — “Street Scene,” from 1913 — was not in either exhibition. It was last publicly seen at Sotheby’s London 11 years ago as part of a group of Fauve and German Expressionist works that were sold by Charles Tabachnick, a Toronto collector. It fetched $3.3 million, a record price at the time. That buyer, whom Sotheby’s refused to identify, is selling the painting next month.

“That was a groundbreaking sale,” said Helena Newman, vice chairwoman of Sotheby’s Impressionist and modern art department worldwide. “It was the first time German Expressionist art was put center stage, and it made a record price that set off an extraordinary period of growth in the German Expressionist market.”